TORRES DEL PAINE

The towers of Torres del Paine in Patagonia are hidden within the Paine Massif. A seven-hour hike is rewarded by a view of the towers across an internal lake. Their size is difficult to judge, with no trees, constructions or people to give a sense of scale from the far side of the lake. Glaciers form at the base of ‘Cleopatra’s Needles’, their melt-water flowing over a vertiginous granite face below. The image showing these waterfalls was taken with a 100-400mm telephoto lens and the only clue to the height is the water itself: teeming with ripples and wakes, the flows are vast. The walk to the base of the towers, which looks as if it will take ten minutes, is a further two-hour hike across the frozen lake.